Re: [Pan-devel] The Blue Sky Becomes Clear - part 01: Basic Thoughts - revision 00

[Duncan]

On Thu 03 Apr 2003 18:08, Joe Weaver posted as excerpted below:
> > I'd argue that your statement about Linux is incorrect.  This isn't
> > MSWormOS. We aren't stuck with some limited choice of proprietary fs
> > formats.  There
>
> Bear in mind there has been recent interest in porting Pan to other
> platforms, including Windows.
>
> Are we planning on porting to MSWormOS any time soon?

As Mark says, it's already been ported..  The beta d/ls are available @ 
rebelbase along with all the others.  I think it's still considered 
non-stable on the platform, but it's definitely been getting better and is 
decently workable.

That said..  I can't honestly say I'd currently recommend PAN on MSWormOS, 
except for those that use it primarily on *ix and wish to continue working in 
a familiar client when on MSWormOS.  There are far more mature news clients 
on that platform, that PAN will eventually match or beat, but it honestly 
isn't ready for a head2head comparison.  That's perfectly OK, however, right 
now.  PAN isn't yet 1.0, and looks to have several generations of 0.x stable 
versions to go before it is.  It's still in active development, and when it 
gets to 1.0, I have every reason to believe it will be the "Pimp-Ass 
Newsreader" of all "pimp-ass newsreaders", on *ALL* supported platforms!

We just have a bit of a ways to go.  Just how far we might forget once in 
awhile -- until we start comparing it to decently mature news clients on the 
majority platform..

(Features that I'd personally consider necessary b4 PAN is ready for a 
head2head comparison include 1) 100K+ post group handling w/o bogging down to 
where it looks frozen, 2) attachment posting, if not automated batch mode 
multi-part, at least manual single and multi-part posting, 3) decent 
filtering/scoring on more than overview fields, such that it is possible to 
match on posting host, organization, reply-to, etc, in the headers, and match 
on body and/or entire post contents as well.  "Pimp-Ass" features, making it 
BETTER than the competition, would include virtual server and virtual 
newsgroup features a la BNR2, and perhaps batch posting, as well as a 
standards based open database format, that is compatible with say MySQL.  
With such a database, the ability to keep posts forever if desired, and 
preview features of other than still pix media, one could manage all news 
directly from PAN.  High goals?  Definitely, but after all, they SHOULD be, 
with a name like "Pimp-Ass Newsreader"!)

-- 
Duncan
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." --
Benjamin Franklin